Review: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR at Theatre 29

Review by Luke Thompson, Special to BroadwayWorld.

Twenty-two years ago, director Charles Harvey mounted a production of Jesus Christ Superstar that was met with protests from the local church. Five years ago, he began a newer version, only to be shut down by COVID. This year, he succeeded, and none of the local Christians seem especially bothered; at this point, JCS is an institution, familiar to most Boomers and Gen-Xers at least by osmosis even if they've never seen the show. For younger generations, maybe not so much, unless their parents forced them to watch the John Legend NBC production on TV a few years back.

Anachronisms are common to productions of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice rock opera, and the production design and costumes (all by Harvey) reflect, per the program, an alternate reality in which Rome never fell, not unlike the look of Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis. Pontius Pilate (Deacon Ledges) wears a gold laurel wreath with his business suit, and his legionnaires (Martha Boyd, Cruz Jimenez, and Joseph Rego) don modern camo. Most notably, the general public all have smartphones – on the rear projection screen, we occasionally glimpse their active social media, though they're most effective as individual, personal spotlights for the chorus members in “Could We Start Again Please?”

Anyone unfamiliar with the Gospel story might have some difficulty following exactly why Jesus (Scott Clinkscales) has to die, but practically nobody in the Twentynine Palms area matches that description, so it's all good. With the contemporary setting, this Jesus, blond and blue-eyed but not long-haired, comes across as a modern-day social media star, overwhelmed by his adoring and sometimes toxic following, his inner isolation in the midst of his own crowd often depicted with a spotlight that sets him apart. When he casts out the money changers, now seen in an adult nightclub called “The Temple,” it comes across as him finally cracking under the pressure rather than any kind of pre-planned, on-brand message.

Don't expect a strictly scriptural passion play. When Judas (Booker Harrap), mildly unshaven and clad in black leather like his “priestly” heavy metal band namesakes, sings of loving Jesus (who's clad in white and tan not unlike Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars), we might wonder if he means something more than brotherly love (Rob Halford would likely approve!). He certainly acts cattily jealous of Mary Magdalene (Catt Christine), whose chemistry with the savior reads as spousal. Rice offended some in the '70s by saying the portrayal of Jesus in the songs is of a man and not God; both interpretations could be made here, but its view that Judas is ultimately redeemed as a necessary part of the plan is undeniable.

Clinkscales and Christine have appropriately heavenly voices that make their key solos the standouts. Christine pours her heart out in the familiar “I Don't Know How to Love Him,” while Clinkscales' performance of “Gethsemane” impressively holds and extends notes almost as far as the biblical Jesus did loaves and fish. (Damn shame Webber and Rice didn't write a duet for them!) Harrap's voice is less mellifluous, with a David Bowie-ish edge, which is appropriate. There's a clever bit of business with his tainted silver, depicted as metallic paint that bleeds through his fingers.

As in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, with its Elvis-Pharaoh, Webber and Rice clearly see their biblical monarchs as opportunities for incongruous comedic numbers in a drastically different style. Here, a female Herod (Victoria Shupe) performs a cabaret number emphasizing who she clearly thinks the real superstar of the show is. The genderblind casting may simply be a factor of available actors, but after seeing Shupe's version, one might find it hard to imagine anybody else. She and others make use of a newly constructed catwalk through the audience, allowing for extra-immersive numbers and a more dramatic final walk with the cross.

Other standouts in the cast include Paco Diaz as a menacing Caiaphas, channeling Yul Brynner from The Ten Commandments with a touch of Robert Blake in Lost Highway. His speak-singing style is nicely counterbalanced by Tiffany Crocker's Annas, who hits every note to perfection. The production calls for a large cast, which it has, but still most play multiple roles, expertly switching costumes in what feels like split-seconds to us (and probably an eternity to them). Rear projection does the lion's share of the set design, with some images static and others featuring motion – the climactic “Superstar” features a moving celestial starfield not unlike the view from the bridge of Star Trek's Enterprise.

It's popular, and often appropriate, to bash Andrew Lloyd Webber these days, especially if you've seen the movie version of Cats, but Tim Rice, who later moved on to Disney, brought out the best in him – the JCS tunes are more rock than opera, concise earworms rather than sluggish inchworms. Perhaps the best compliment I can give these songs, as performed by the cast of Theatre 29, is that when the show was over, after a fairly concise 90-ish minutes plus intermission, I wanted, like Mary Magdalene, to start again, please.

“Jesus Christ Superstar” is rated 13+ for violence and adult content that may not be appropriate for younger audiences. The production will run Friday and Saturdays at 7:00PM through May 4th.  Both remaining Sunday matinees are sold out. Tickets can be purchased now through theatre29.org, through QR Codes on show posters throughout town or by call (760) 361-4151.

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